04/02/98

As I referred to yesterday, there have been dates on the calendar that have synchronized and developed into amazing experiences in my life.

The first one that I recognized began just before my senior year in college.

I was fortunate growing up to get to spend time with both sets of grandparents and enjoy them for differing reasons. Today’s story involves Grandmother.

For most of my remembered years, my Father’s parents – Grandmother and Grandfather – (not ever shortened to grandma and grandpa and never a pet silly name was used) lived in the winter months in Florida and came up to be near the farm in the summers.  I have many many memories of riding with Grandfather on the tractor as he did whatever field work was needed and sitting under the large maple tree out in the front yard with Grandmother and helping shuck peas, snap beans or pluck elderberries  as she told stories.  She had a phenomenal memory and was an excellent story teller.

After Grandfather died, Grandmother would have one of us grandchildren drive her to or from Florida and we would fly on the opposite leg of the trip.

Just prior to one of the times that I was fortunate enough to be a part of, I had completed renting part of a home just off of campus at Ohio State.  Knowing she had gone to OSU for her degree, I considered taking her by the house to show her where I was to be living. I rejected the idea based on the thinking that it had been so long since she had been around campus, she probably would just say it was nice old house and we would simply move along.

We take a couple of days to drive to FL and she is regaling stories all along the way of times in her life.  Sometime along in the second day as we were driving through Georgia, she is going through some of her college stories of attending Ohio State.  It was during prohibition so there are some really great stories.  She gets to a point and says “and then for my junior and senior year, I lived at 48 East 17th Avenue”.  I nearly drove off of the road as I turned to stare at her as the house I had just rented was at 48 East 17th Ave!  I ask her to describe the house as they could have renumbered the homes since the time she was there or even moved streets.  She describes the house from the outside and I know it is the same one.

When we get to her home in Florida, she digs through some old photos and finds ones of her and friends in front of this old stone block home that we both lived in while attending the same college generations apart.  Today I cannot locate that photo but here is one of the gals in front of the house.

I can hear some of you thinking that while that is all incredible and great, it has nothing to do with coinciding dates.

So the timeline is this:  My Grandmother attended Ohio State University from 1921 until 1925 and lived at 48 East 17th Avenue at the time of her graduation on June 14, 1925.

I attended Ohio State University from 1981 until 1985 and lived at 48 East 17th Avenue at the time that I graduated on June 14, 1985.

Sixty years to the day, a grandmother and granddaughter shared the same home and graduated on the same day.  On a campus of it’s size, it is remarkable by any standards.

She came to my graduation and somewhere I have the photo of both of us together on the steps of the house on the day of our graduation albeit sixty years apart.  Obviously, I put it somewhere sacred and special so that it wouldn’t be lost.

Unlike the pseudo names and photos that are generally used in this blog, all photos today are real as are the dates and addresses. The house has since been torn down and replaced with a newer campus rental home.

There are a billion calculations that could have made this a non-event.  It could have been that I didn’t drive Grandmother to Florida that year and thus never would have heard that story.  The house could have been razed years earlier. Either one of us could have gone to a different college and graduated on a different date. Either one of us could have lived at one of the other 50,000 houses around Columbus.  The odds make it almost unbelievable yet it happened and is a treasured story to share.

Wilma, Make fun of my college graduation photo and I will find one of your ’80s photos and post.  Workouts have been sporadic at best the past few days.  I did some sumo squats – hello inner thighs, and some pushups and jumped some rope.  I have not however gotten them all strung together to do the tabata workout.  After such a gorgeous week — tonight it is snowing again.

I hope your week got better than when we last spoke.

Love Betty